Torin Yater-Wallace Steals the Win in Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final

Coming into the Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final on top after the semifinal was the multi-talented Gus Kenworthy — the only rider at the Dew Tour Mountain Championships to compete in multiple finals. Though taking all in the superpipe would take more than talent, the riders of the evening proved it would take endurance, too.

Taylor Seaton launches a double cork 1260 down the pipe

Canada’s Simon d’Artois spins a 900

Kyle Smaine had a fun run, which included a double cork 1260

Mike Riddle launching a 900 on the first hit of his run

Simon Dumont showing off his veteran prowess with a corked 540

Aaron Blunck looked strong despite a recent back injury

The fans who lined the pipe weren’t disappointed by what they saw

France’s Ben Valentin has shown strong amplitude all week

Alex Ferreira got the contest started off with a heavy run

Gus Kenworthy kicking off his run with a 900

Kevin Rolland brought serious amplitude to this mute 1260

David Wise came into the superpipe switch and fired a switch 900

Torin Yater-Wallace kicked his run off with a serious 1260

(R-L) David Wise 2nd, Torin Yater-Wallace 1st, Kevin Rolland 3rd

Men’s Freeski Superpipe Final

With the return of Simon Dumont to the superpipe, following his eligibility by his run put down in the last chance qualifier, the field of twelve skiers was stacked. Knowing they each had two runs to get the best score of the evening, the entire event saw big tricks getting bigger as the evening progressed.

Kevin Rolland’s third place run

Reality Check Moments:

Hardly expected, the first round of runs saw three different scores break into the 90s and Alex Ferreira sent the first one on the first run of the night earning a 90.25. Then came Torin Yater-Wallace who upped the anty to 92.25 and finally defending champ David Wise stepped it up once more to a 94.75. With every rider’s run mentioned came dropped jaws from the rest of the riders as the level of technicality in tricks continued to skyrocket.

Then in the second round of runs Torin wanted the lead back and he knew he had the run to do it. Taking the same approach throughout the pipe, Torin made the effort to land every trick as high up on the walls as he could and when he made it complete to the bottom the result was his! Proving the night of insane ability was only to be matched by that of the will to polish those tricks to perfection, Torin’s second run earned him the night’s best score of a 95.25.

David Wise’s second place run

Top Tricks:

David Wise — Hopped into the pipe switch, switch right 900, switch right double cork 1080, alley-oop flat 540, left 1260 to another back-to-back right 1260 spinning them both ways.

Torin Yater-Wallace — Double cork 1260 off the first hit, right 1080, switch 720, alley-oop double back-to-back to a down the pipe double flat 900.

Torin Yater-Wallace’s winning run

Winner’s Quote:

“It feels amazing! Last year, the Olympic year, I got hurt at this event and the whole season didn’t work out so hot for me. So, coming back and getting on the podium is a great feeling. I’ve never done too well here, so this is awesome. It just felt like any other run, but I heard others saying I was going really big. The pipe was really fast, so that’s what happens. It felt normal but I guess I went a little big. Going into my second to last hit in the first run I landed pretty flat because I popped super hard… so I had to polish that up, land higher up on the wall and bring all the speed I could to the last hit to get the grab and better amplitude — it got me the few extra points I needed I guess.” — Torin Yater-Wallace